The dwarf slowly moved towards me while having one hand raised.
That hand slowly came towards me, or rather it was moving towards The Penetrator as if he wanted to take it from my hand.
However, before he could reach it, I suddenly pulled my hand back and The Penetrator moved out of his way.
When the dwarf saw this, he narrowed his eyes and looked back up at me.
After a moment of silence, he said, "I challenge you!"
I wasn't surprised when I heard this, but the people around me were definitely surprised.
However, to my surprise, I found that there were several people that came forward to stand between me and the dwarf.
I recognized them as the people who had lived in this town back when I had first taken over.
These people could be considered some of the oldest residents in this town.
One of them suddenly said, "Who do you think you are to challenge our lord?"
Another one said, "Do you know where you are? Do you think that we're scared of you?"
"Don't forget that you're in human society! You can't do whatever you want just because you're a dwarf!"
The dwarf had acted tough earlier because he was only facing one or two people at a time, but when this crowd confronted him, the dwarf couldn't help taking a step back. After all, it was true, he was a single dwarf alone in human society.
There was a reason why dwarves left human society alone for so long.
There were just too many humans for them to fight!
But before anyone could do anything, I came forward and calmed the crowd down before saying, "Everyone, please don't worry. I'm sure that this dwarven friend here is not here with any ill intentions." I turned to look at the dwarf with narrowed eyes before saying, "Isn't that right?"
When the dwarf felt my gaze on him, he couldn't help giving a tremble before slowly nodding.
Seeing the dwarf backing down like this, everyone was more assured than before and they slowly started to walk away.
Once the crowd had dispersed, I looked at the dwarf and asked, "So, what kind of challenge are you proposing?"
The dwarf cautiously looked around first at the people that were still looking this way before saying, "I want to challenge you to a forging challenge. Someone with an amazing magic weapon like this must have amazing forging skills."
I looked at the dwarf with narrowed eyes before saying, "So what do you want if you win?"
When the dwarf heard this, he couldn't help looking at me with a strange look.
I just said with a smile, "In dwarven society, you wouldn't challenge someone to a forging duel unless there was something that you wanted. So I'm sure that there's something that you want from me."
The dwarf trembled when he heard this as if he had suddenly been exposed.
When the crowd heard this, they once again became agitated.
"What a shameless dwarf, trying to take advantage of the lord!"
"This dwarf's shame knows no bounds! It's no wonder his beard is so thick, it's to hide his shame!"
"And he was acting so tough earlier, now look at him…"
The dwarf's face turned completely red when he heard this.
Even though he had been shouting earlier without a care, it wasn't as if he didn't feel any shame at all. He just sucked up his shame to achieve his goal because otherwise this would have been a wasted trip.
But now that he had been exposed, he could only feel shame.
I let this continue for a bit before waving my hand to calm the crowd down. I turned to the dwarf and asked, "So, what do you want from me?"
The dwarf's face was still red, but he took a deep breath and said, "I want your magic weapon. That kind of amazing magic weapon deserves to be in the hand of someone who understands it and can study it."
I gave a nod before saying, "Then what are you prepared to give me if I win?"
The dwarf couldn't help being taken aback when he heard this.
A human actually thought that he had a chance to beat a dwarf in a forging challenge?
The dwarf had thought that since his plan had been revealed, he would have to take a step back and offer the human something in exchange for the magic weapon.
But now it seemed like this human wanted to take him up on this challenge?
If that was the case…
The dwarf narrowed his eyes to look at me as he said, "What do you want?"
Instead of answering this question, I raised another question, "What is your name?"
The dwarf was confused when he heard this, but he still said, "Rondo Silvermine."
The moment that I heard this, my eyes suddenly lit up.
I said with a smile, "Ah, a traveler from the Silvermine Family."
The dwarf was even more surprised when he heard this. He looked at me with a strange look and slowly said, "You know my family?"
I just revealed a mysterious smile without saying a thing.
The dwarf's expression fluctuated a few times before he said with a sigh, "Just what do you want?"
"It's very simple, I want the right to buy mithril from your Silvermine Family." I calmly said.
The dwarf once again revealed a strange look as he said, "You want to buy mithril from my family? Is that really all you want?"
He couldn't help being confused since this was not equal to The Penetrator in his mind. After all, this was an amazing magic weapon and he was risking it just to have a chance to buy some mithril…
Mithril was a good ore, but it was by no means worth as much as this magic weapon.
So the dwarf couldn't help thinking, "This human…is he trying to help me?"
But I just looked at the dwarf with the same smile on my face.